Audio glitches on Mac after macOS Tahoe update

Same here on v26.0.0 and on 26.0.1. It goes on for weeks now! v26.0.1 update helped nothing!!

(BTW the machine is casually getting hot, which has never happened before.)

Some of my colleagues have this issue as well.

This fix works, but only for a short period of time:

sudo pkill coreaudiod

MacBook Pro 14-inch, 2021 (Apple M1 Pro, 32 GB RAM)

[Edited by Moderator]

I did not notice this response when browsing the thread initially. I too had Xcode Developer Tools iPhone/iOS Simulator app open and yes it clearly causes/amplifies the problem. Closing iOS Simulator removed all audio glitches! My guess it's not just iOS Simulator but simultaneous open active apps interfacing with macOS audio services do not play well together in current Tahoe system. Maybe.

I've reported this issue separately in MacBook M1 Pro with USB headphones crackl… - Apple Community but looking at the discussion and workarounds (killing coreaudiod or changing the format in Audio MIDI Setup) it seems to be the same problem.

For everyone else, can you see if in your case MacOS unified logs show the same messages around the time that the crackling starts?

Use this command to stream logs in realtime with a filter that should show only audio-related events:

log stream --predicate '(eventMessage CONTAINS[c] "audio" || eventMessage CONTAINS[c] "media" || eventMessage CONTAINS[c] "IOSurface" || sender CONTAINS[c] "audio" || subsystem CONTAINS[c] "audio" || process CONTAINS[c] "audio") && NOT process IN {"runningboardd", "airportd"}'

In my case, there are 3 events in the logs that seem to accompany this problem: coreaudiod: (libAudioIssueDetector.dylib) (a report of detected audio issue ), usbaudiod: current microframe timestamp calcError (a USB audio error) and HALS_OverloadMessage: Overload (an overload errors in Apple CoreAudio Hardware Abstraction Layer).

In my case, the workarounds discussed (killing coreaudiod or switching the device's sample format in Audio MIDI Setup) only help temporarily, and the crackling comes back in a few minutes, gradually escalating to completely inaudible.

The issue still happens on my macbook M1-Pro, macOS Tahoe 26.1 when I open Simulator.

I can fix it by running command

sudo killall -9 coreaudiod

Similar to someone posted already but with sudo and param -9

I've been experiencing the same issue on macOS 26.3 (M3 MacBook Air) — audio gradually becomes very quiet and muffled across all outputs (built-in speakers and Bluetooth), only recoverable by a full reboot.

After some investigation, I found that "sudo killall coreaudiod" alone is insufficient — in fact, it seemed to make things slightly worse each time. The key discovery was that when I killed coreaudiod without killing audio client processes, the audio would briefly recover (~1 second) before immediately degrading again. This suggests that some client process holds corrupted state that re-infects the freshly restarted audio stack.

What actually works (without reboot):

Kill all processes that have CoreAudio loaded, then restart all audio daemons (not just coreaudiod — also audiomxd, audioclocksyncd, etc.):

lsof 2>/dev/null | grep CoreAudio | awk '{print $2}' | sort -un | xargs kill -9 2>/dev/null
sudo killall -9 coreaudiod audiomxd audioclocksyncd audioanalyticsd audioaccessoryd AudioComponentRegistrar

More complete script and details here: https://gist.github.com/metrovoc/0b5e3590c6069cf99b01559863bc2ce4

Still working on identifying which specific app is the primary trigger. Running Xcode/CoreSimulator in the background appears to be a contributing factor.

This fixes the issue for me open terminal and run `sudo killall coreaudiod`.

If it happens again just run it again, until apple fixes it

Same thing. But

`sudo killall coreaudiod`

actually helps for now. Thank you adteulade-pp

Yes and it's unfortunate that most if not all 3rd party software developers scramble to keep up with Apple Updates.

It may take developers several months to write codes to fix issues. Since Windows is not as aggressive on updates as Apple the users are spared the headache. I'm running a Multi Media platform on Mac Studio. Recording studio and Video editing. I did notice some of the settings were lost with the Tahoe update for instance MIDI routing had to be reconfigured to be able to have sound. Also a native plugin synth only the sound crashes and that didn't happen before. There are non response glitches on commands that were not there before. What I mean by glitch is a freeze up.

This was the solution for me, I had a simulator running without realizing it. After removing it, I haven't experiences any sound issue anymore!

k_azmi wrote:

You are my hero. I just changed my format. I don't know this setting before. Because before updating to Tahoe 26.1, this problem never showed up.

Image default after update to Tahoe.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/c2a451cf-04a2-409c-a118-45fa25d545c2

and found your solutions. I changed the setting to format below.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/d0fe3df9-7b68-43f9-addb-66d139302b0c

and my sound become normal again. Big thanks for you.

good computing k_azmi ! Appreciate your feedback.

Issue still persists with Tahoe 26.3. One way to trigger it very reliably for me has been running Spotify (lossless mode) and World of Warcraft at the same time. After a few minutes audio gets corrupted and only "sudo killall coreaudiod" can fix it.

danyisdany wrote:

I'm having audio glitches even under the device is underload a little bit just a little bit and I don't know how to fix that thing. It happens just after the macOs Tahoe update. I didn't have any problems in previous Os.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Audio Glitches

re: Audio glitches

Did you try making changes reducing the Hz and compare your results(?)

Same here. Only started after the Tahoe update. In my case (M1 pro) it only happens with hdmi or thunderbolt connections (tested with both a monitor with soundbar and a TV). Doesn't happen when playing on macbook speakers or with bluetooth connections.

There are more reports here, yes.

It is similar to the bug

"External camera video is laggy/choppy in conferencing apps until Photo Booth is opened" in Tahoe.

It is a long shot but worth a try to compare your results.

Ai says—

[Photo Booth does record audio by using your Mac's built-in microphone by default, but only if the microphone is enabled in the system settings and the correct audio source is selected]

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

I did it once and since yesterday after I ran it in terminal it did not came back.

and I watched about 7 hours of courses.. shut it down twice.. so it’s pretty good solution..

does it come back after you typed it in terminal?